Sunday, 22 January 2012

Target Audience Research

Here are my results from a questionnaire that I handed out about peoples preferences within horror films. I handed it to 20 people, ranging in different ages from 12-50 years old. After collecting back the questionnaires, I gathered my information and produced pie charts to show my results. Below I have shown a few questions and their results.These results show that the majority of people who watch horror films are aged between 19 and 25. And not many people aged 40 and above watched horror films.


This question shows that the majority of people who I asked preferred to watch a horror film with their friends. This helped us decide on our plot and what to include to attract the sort of people that would watch it.



These results show that most people look for horror films that give them an adrenaline rush. This also helped towards thinking of ideas of what to include in our film to ensure that our targeted audience are watching something they enjoy.




This question proved that people are more likely to share, recommend horror films they have seen. Also exchange them with one another. This is good, free publicity for film companies and and easy way for their film to get noticed and to get selling!

This question shows that watching films monthly and weekly are very popular and is most likely to be what our audeince would do. This links in with cinema deals, such as paying monthly for an unlimited cinema card to visit whenever you want. Also, orange wednesdays 2 for 1 deal is very popular within our specific teen age range. As its cheaper and more suited and appealing for them.

Friday, 20 January 2012

Questionnaire Feedback

David, aged 20

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
I would say its a horror film just from the general spooky storyline and efects used throughout the film, such as the scary music and setting.

2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
I particularly liked the 2 scenes that are filmed as if you are looking through a video camera - I thought this worked extrememly well and added a spooky/eerie effect as I couldnt tell who was behind the camera filming.

3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
I think it was all very good. The only thing I would say is that you could have added in more quick shots at the end where all the bad things start happening to her, there was only her being dragged along on the carpet and her drowning in the bath. I think a few more would have increased the 'horror' effect and definitely make me feel more suspensed and on edge.

4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
Yes i thought it was made very clear with the good acting skills, and the dialogue made it clear to me that he was a ghost and was her friend etc.

5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
Very well, 'The Unseen' links well with what happens in the story as we can't see the ghost - he is unseen!

6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not.
The editing skills were really good. I liked the slow motion parts, this was a nice effect and the added in sound effects such as the loud bangs towards the end - they were a great aspect of the sequence. Yes the credits also worked well.

7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?
I thought it was great, the editing skills and the general storyline all worked really well.

Qustionnaire Feedback

Faye, aged 23

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
Its a horror film and I could tell this by the music and setting.

2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
My favourite part was the bit where you filmed the scene through the window which looked really effective, making the scene look mysterious.

3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
The part where she was reading the notice board in the graveyard wasn't clear to me, and it was hard to understand its relevance to the rest of the film.

4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
Yes it was easy to understand because you made it clear what the story was about with showing the grave and reading his name aloud, and talking about him to the mother.

5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
Yes definitely, it fitted in well.

6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not.
The editing was good and made me jump at points, especially towards the end I liked the quick jump cuts and loud bang noises that were edited in. The credits where good and straight to the point.

7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?
I particularly liked the scene when the chair was swinging on its own, it was very tense and full of suspense. Overall, a very good film opening well done!

Questionnaire feedback

Hannah, aged 16

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
Either horror or thriller, because its got you in suspense right from the start as you can't tell whos she talking too.

2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
I like the setting and how it's remote. The graveyard also looked rather eerie and creepy.

3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
The voice overs and dialogue could have been improved as they didnt quite look right or fit in with the film sequence.

4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
Yes I got the jist of the story straight away, and i think that comes down to the production.

5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
Yes i think it suited really well.

6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not.
I think the editing was good and the credits flowed well and were positioned well in the shot (i.e not blocking an actress in the frame).

7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?
Very well done.

Questionnaire

To get some feedback from our film I decided to create a questionnaire that I would give to a few people, and ask them to watch the final film sequence then answer the questions as honestly as they could. This was so we could see what other people thought about it, and recieve any feedback on what we could improve if we was to do something similar to this project in the future. The questions i asked were:

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not
7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Horror Film Survey

We decided to create a set of questions that we would ask a range of different aged people in our school. The survey would help us establish the sort of codes and conventions that interest our audience, and give us a better understanding of what people enjoy. The questions we asked them were:

1. Do you like Horror films?
2. If you do, why? If you dont, why?
3. What aspects do you look for in horror films?
4. If you were to watch a horror film, who would you watch it with?
5. What is your favourite horror film that you have watched?

These are the research/results we collected:

Meghan, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_kAjr2_GFA&context=C3e14c51ADOEgsToPDskJwfzX5j8UhB9XDRKFizrgm

Ellie, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrY-h1XY4&feature=related

Kara, aged 17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOM5cCLSxQc&feature=related

Callum and Hannah, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwV7criCyt0&feature=related

Hannah, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IFUTlzo0c&feature=related

Luke, Michael and Kieran, aged 18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XXFXXvVZY&feature=related

School Librarian, unknown age
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrzIbjuPpK4&feature=related

Mia, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_p66yWECMA&feature=related

Monday, 16 January 2012

Character Profile

For part of my horror film survey, i have created a character profile for one of the audience memebers in which i feel our film will be aimed at. Here is a small section of information about one of the people i have chose to take a picture of and analyse.

Gwen is 18 years old and is currently studying at Knights Templar 6th form. Gwen's main interest are fashion, going out with friends and her puppy. I took the picture against a plain white wall to really show of what she is wearing and so people dont get distracted by other background happenings. The white colour could represent her freedom and open minded personality, and how shes not too fussy. Which could link to films and suggest she's not fussy on what type of film she watches.

She is dressed in a bright red/orange, vibrant coloured dress which could represent her fun, out-going sort of personality. What she is wearing implies that she may be about to go out to a party or even at a party. Also, the alcoholic drink that she holds could also imply she's the party type and likes to have a good time! This could suggest that she likes to spend time with her friends, which could tell us that she'd be more inclined to watch horror films with her friends over family members or others.

Gwen has told me that she enjoys watching mostly all types of horror films and doesnt have a particular favourite. She watches horror films atleast twice a month, usually with her friends. Gwen doesnt have a job, but recieves £10 a week as pocket money from her mum and dad. She said she would pay up to a maximum of £10 to see the new latest horror film at the cinema, and she would pay a maximum of £15 to buy it on dvd. She sees films advertised mainly on TV and quotes "The trailer usually makes me want to see the film. If the movie isn't portrayed well in the trailer I wouldn't go and see it". If we were going to publish our film, our trailer would have to engage the audience so that they would then be willing to go and see the film or buy the DVD.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

The Unseen Poster

This is the poster for our film 'The Unseen' that Harri Nicholls designed but with ideas from the group together. The idea behind the poster for our film was for an eye to be the main focus of it so that it emphasized the fact of knowing that you are being watched but not knowing what exactly what is watching you (voyeurism). Because in our film the character of Thomas the ghost is only seen by one person; the character of Katie. Even though other people surrounding her can experience what she is going through, they cannot see what she see's, therefore it is unseen by the surrounding eyes of onlookers.


The reason for having the text in the bottom right hand corner with the white etches around it was created in a way that we felt made it look mysterious but also as the white area surrounding the text could symbolise the ghost, as ghosts are usually portrayed to be stereotypically white; fixing in with a typical convention of horror. But also, it was done so that the text had some parts that were black within it which could represent how people are so close to finding out what Katie's 'new friend' is, but then in contrast the majority of the white surrounding the text, which represents Thomas and how he is in a more superior position as he is in control of the situation and no one else can change that.


I think the poster fits well with what our film is about. If our audeince where to look at the poster, they would have a bit of an understanding as to what the film involves, but doesnt give away too much! The colours used are your typical horror genre colours e.g. black and whites. Overall we are pleased with how the poster turned out

Friday, 13 January 2012

Editing

To edit our filming we used a programme called 'Final Cut' on the Mac computers at school. We connected the camera we filmed our footage on to the computer and uploaded them and saved them in a file on the computer. We opened Final Cut and clicked 'import files' and selected our footage. All these files then appeared in the browser and we were able to drag the shots we wanted down on to the timeline.
After putting the shots we wanted on the timeline we were then able to adjust them to how we wanted them. We put them in the correct time order, cut the length of the some of them and mooved them about. We also added in transitions between the shots, by selecting the shot and then clicking on 'effect' on the top tool bar and then selecting a transition such as 'fade in, fade out' and 'fade away', having the transitions made the film run smoothly and look professional. For one of our shots filmed inside the house we realised it looked too dark after uplaoding it and watching it back, so we needed to lighten it up so the audience could clearly see what was in the shot. We did this by using one of the tools on Final Cut and adjusting the ligting levels
We imported sound files in to the brower aswell, and dragged this on to our timeline. We had a spooky soundtrack running throughout the duration of most of our sequence. We downloaded this from a website called http://www.freesound.org/, and then imported it on to our timeline in Final Cut. Using the 'cut' tool we were able to crop the sound file so it fit in with the timing of our footage. We also downloaded short sound effects that went a long with some of our footage, such as the sound of a door creaking and loud bang noises. We added these in to our sequence to emphasise the 'horror' genre.
After we had finished adjusting our footage and editing it, we imported the file for our animated logo for our production company that we made ourselves. We put our logo at the beginning of our sequence before the storyline had began. We chose to do this as we had researched film openings beforehand and recongnised that the procution company was always introduced before the film began, and so we wanted to follow this to make our film professional and relate it to other well-known, sucessfull films.
Above is what our production company logo looks like. The name of our production company is 'H2B Productions', we thought of this name because there are two girls in our group called Harri which accounts for the 'H2' bit, and then theres a Becky (me) which stands for the letter B. We thought the name sounded similar to a scientific formula or a mathematic equation, making our company seem professional and intelligent! We used the colours black and red as they are mostly associated with horror genres and also the red colour could have connotations of blood and gore. The devil horns above the text symbolises the fact we are a horror film production company along with the colours used, as you would usually associate red horns with the horns of a devil or villain. We used this particular font as it looks uneven and rough around the edges, which could make it look like someone has quickly and roughly carved it somewhere - making it seem mysterious, a bit like the type of film we have produced.
When we were editing we added in text (screenshots above show this). We used the style of a typewriter when the writing appears, so each letter comes on the screen one by one. We used this effect as we thought it looked as if someone was writing it, but as an audience you cant see whos typing it creating a spooky and mysterious effect. It also links to the name of our film 'The Unseen' and emphasises that unknown effect we created throughout our film. The slow movement of the text appearing on the screen nervs the audience. The black writing is very bold and solid and the dark gloom colour has connotations of death and something lifeless e.g. a ghost.This shot apeared at the end of our film. 'The Unseen' is the name of our film and so we wanted the font to look haunting to match the genre and type of film. We chose this thin, crooked text as it looked slightly myserious as if someone had again carved it carelessly somewhere. The plain white background linked to what the writing says 'The Unseen' it's blank therefore theres nothing to see. Also our storyline involves ghosts and the colour white is mostly associated with ghosts. Overall we had around abouts four 2 hour sessions to complete out editing, so in total it took us 8 hours.

Voice Overs

Non diegetic voice overs were used twice in the editing of our film. Once because a scene that we had where the character of Katie said a monologue, turned out to be slightly muffled and the sound of her voice had been quietened due to the weather conditions surrounding her. Because we were using one of our friends Ellie, she also had other commitments for other subjects and work during school so therefore we decided to use my own voice for this particular section as my voice sounded slightly similar to Ellie's, but also it meant that we would save some time. We used a second non diegetic voice over of Harri's voice saying 'Katie' in a spooky eerie way as she ran away from the graveyard; we did this because we felt that it made that particular scene more dramatic and built suspense as it led to the next scene. Plus it linked in with the unkown effect we were creating throughout our film as you cant see who's saying it, you can just hear it, therefore this puts our audience on edge and emphasises the thrill factor. We also added in a pre-recorded monologue of when Katie is speaking to the ghost of Thomas in her room, we pre-recorded this of Ellie's voice when filming our sequence, we added in the voice during editing to ensure that what she was saying could be heard loudly and clearly.

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Filming Schedules

UPDATED FINAL SHOOTING SCHEDULE











































































































































Shot Number



Time



Location



Props



Who



6



11am-11.30am



Long shot of new house



No props



No-one



9,10,11,12



11.30am-12.30pm



Graveyard



Clothes Ellie is wearing, Dylan the dog



Ellie



13



12.30pm-12.45pm



Lane In Sandon



No Props needed



Ellie



14,15



1pm-1.30pm



Harri Long’s house(kitchen and stairs)



Glass, biscuit tin and mug of tea.



Ellie and Harri N.



17



1.30pm-1.35



Stairs of house



No props



Ellie



16



1.35pm-1.45pm



1st Bedroom



Moving chair



Ellie



New shot (wasn’t planned)



1.45pm-2pm



2nd Bedroom



No props



Ellie



20



2pm-2.15pm



Landing of house



No props



Ellie



New shot



2.15pm-2.30pm



Bathroom- in the bath



No props



Ellie



New shot



2.30-3pm



{Check through footage}



No props



All
































FIRST SHOOTING SCHEDULE

















































































































































































Shot Number



Time



Location



Props



Who



6



11am-11.30am



Long shot of new house



No props



No-one



9,10,11,12



11.30am-12.30pm



Graveyard



Clothes Ellie is wearing, Dylan the dog



Ellie



13



12.30pm-12.45pm



Lane In Sandon



No Props needed



Ellie



14,15



1pm-1.30pm



Harri Long’s house(kitchen and stairs)



Glass, biscuit tin and mug of tea.



Ellie and Harri N.



17



1.30pm-1.35



Stairs of house



No props



Ellie



16



1.35pm-1.45pm



1st Bedroom



Moving chair



Ellie



7



1.45pm-2pm



Bedroom



Bed



Ellie



8



2pm-2.10pm



Stairs



No props



Ellie



20



2.10pm-2.15pm



Landing of house



No props



Ellie



18,19



2.15-2.30



Through keyhole & Kitchen



No props



Ellie and Harri N.



1,2,3



Friday 18th 12pm-1pm



Clothal Common- Inside of Harri Nicholls house



No Props



Ellie



4,5



Friday 18th 1pm-1.30pm



Inside of Harri Nicholls’ house



Kitchen Utensils



Ellie and Harri N.



6



Friday 18th 1.30pm-1.45pm



Harri Nicholls house- outside



For sale sign



No-one






































































































































Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Main Task

To think of a storyline, we thought about different horror/thriller films we had seen ourselves and then discussed different conventions of the films that scared us the most. We all said that we found ghosts really scary in a horror film, and also little children. We asked our friends and other people in our media class, if they thought a horror film including a ghost and a young child would be something they would pay to watch, either at the cinema or to buy on dvd. After hearing their positive feedback, we decided to definitely include this in our film.

We thought the ghost idea would be really effective, as we wouldnt actually have the ghost as anything (a person or a white sheet for example) - it would just be thin air. This would then tie in with the name of our film 'The Unseen', implying that the villain isn't noticeable, it's 'unseen' which adds to the spooky, eerie effect that we wanted to create. We thought that using a young child around abouts the age of 8 years old as the innocent victim, would engage the audience as they could possibly feel sorry for the character as she is so young, and they could get attached to how sweet and innocent she looks. Instead of using an 8 year old to be the actual character for our film, we decided on using our friend Ellie Duckles who is the same age as us (16 years old). She already looks quite young for her age and is quite petite, so we thought with the help of make-up and clothing we could make her look around abouts the age of 8. We would also be at an advantage using her as she has strong acting skills and studied Drama at GCSE and is currently taking it at AS level. So we thought she would be used to taking directions from people, whereas using an actual 8 year old might give us a disadvantage as they might not be used to this sort of thing, may not understand our storyline/directions we give or they might be a little shy.

Our Final task Idea: We decided that the opening shot would be a panning shot of Katie running up a driveway and into a house which had a 'for sale' sign outside. There would be a dissolve shot into a two shot of Katie and her mother in the kitchen, the two would be in conversation about moving house and how Katie was feeling. There would then be a jump cut to a close up 'sold' sign outside of a secluded small house situated in a village. An over the shoulder shot would occur of the young girl looking out into her new room which would be surrounded with cardboard boxes, emphasising the fact of a move to a new house for an average family. This then being followed by a fading transition to a shot of the mother and daughter walking their dog down the village lanes when suddenly the daughter runs off as the mother loses concentration for a small period of time. A jump cut would then show Katie peering into a graveyard with no dialogue as the camera pans around the graveyard with spooky music playing quietly in the background. The camera would then jump cut to a close up of one gravestone in particular with Katie continuing the read out the name and dates on the gravestone. Suddenly as soon as she has finished reading the name, it starts to get more mysterious and leaves begin randomly swirling around in the air behind her back. Unfased by it all, Katie skips home whilst a tracking shot follows her on her journey. Back at home, in the new kitchen, both the mother and Katie sit face to face across a table dicussing Katies new friends, when she mentions Thomas who followed her home from the graveyard (the ghost). Then the film continues with lots of mysterious happenings surrounding Katie and her new 'friend', and finally finishing with 3 short jumpcuts of different scenes in which Katie is in danger. Leading to the opening of the film ending with a blackout.

This is what our main task storyboard looked like:
Location
The first few scenes would be located in Baldock, at Harri Nicholls (a member of our group) house. The next scenes would be at a small, desserted, creepy looking house in Sandon and the inside of Harri Longs (another member of the group) house. Also we would have some scenes filmed in the church graveyard in Sandon, and some filmed on the road leading from the desserted house. We thought the desserted, creepy house and the graveyard were typical horror film conventions and so that is why we included these settings in our film to make it as 'horror' like as possible.

Props
Again, we thought that we didn't need to include that many props in our film as we thought we would be able to achieve the horror genre and thrill factor with very limited amount of props... just like we did in our preliminary task! One of the props that we used were some leaves for the scene in the graveyard. We threw these infront of the camera to make the weather seem very windy all of a sudden and to create a mysterious, frightening effect. The other prop we used was Harri's dog for a few of the scenes. We decided on using a dog as families generally own some sort of family pet e.g. a dog, so we thought families that watch our film could relate and might get more engaged with the film as they want to know if anything might happen to the dog - as you can tell throughout the film by the eerie music, edited effects and mise-en-scene that something bad is going to happen. And obviously they would hate to see anything bad happen to the dog, cos then they could relate it to their own pet and this would scare them.

Costumes
We thought carefully about what sort of clothing we would want our characters to wear. We decided to keep it as realistic as possible, so our audience could relate. We dressed our characters in clothes that we thought suited their age. We had the mother wear blue denim jeans, a green barbour jacket and grey boots for the scene where she is walking the dog. We thought this would be what a fashionable, mid 30 year old, single mum would wear whilst taking the dog for a walk in the morning before the day had fully begun. The mother is then seen again inside the house, wearing the same jeans as before, but having removed the coat and now revealing a purple/grey knitted cardigan. We chose the cardigan as we thought it showed a relaxed side to her personality, the colours aren't too bold and 'in your face' which could also symbolise her type of personality - calm and collective.
The young girl character had 3 outfits for the film. We suited these outfits to the mood she is in at that point in time, so the outfit refelects how she is feeling. The first outfit is a knee-length, bright, floral dress that she is seen wearing in the first few scenes where she has just mooved house and met Thomas (her ghost friend). The bright, floral pattern reflects her happy, positive mood as she has met a new friend that she calls her 'bestest friend'. The next outfit is again, a knee-length dress but a deep navy/purple colour without a vibrant pattern. This outfit is worn when Thomas starts to become restless towards Katie, and things start to become mysterious. The final outfit, which she is seen wearing in the last few scenes where Thomas becomes evil and nasty towards Katie, and Katie has no control over what is happening. The outfit is a knee-length, dark, black dress which could show how she is in a dark place, and reflects her mood at that time.

Here is the link to our final main task sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2gtzahD0tY